In the consumer market, steadily improving image quality, increased affordability, and ease of use have contributed to the rapid acceptance and use of video camcorders. Digital video capture and display devices have further benefited from advances in storage technologies using magnetic, optical, and electronic storage media such as digital videotape, memory cards, optical disks, and high-capacity random access memory (RAM) components. However, while camcorders have grown in popularity, many consumers express some level of disappointment with the image output achieved. For many reasons, the output from consumer camcorders can be disappointing or uninteresting to the viewer when compared with output captured and edited by imaging professionals. The problem is not typically caused by failure to use the equipment properly, but by a basic lack of a script, or a story, which is compelling to the viewer. Post-production modification and editing of video sequences is possible, but is inconvenient, and difficult to use for most consumers.
Efforts have been made to address this problem by providers of digital image capture equipment and accessories. For example, commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,477,264 (Sarbadhikari et al.) discloses, for an electronic camera, a removable storage device preloaded with enhancement files for effecting camera operation, with additional graphical overlays and borders, and with built-in optimization, compression, and image enhancement algorithms. Commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,292,219 (Fredlund et al.) discloses an electronic motion picture camera system that provides special-effect video output. The device of U.S. Pat. No. 6,292,219 provides a removable motion image-recording medium with programs that automatically, or as instructed by the camera operator, act upon a captured video stream to provide an edited appearance, instructing the camera to affect imaging characteristics such as focus, highlighting effects, segues, fade-outs, and other effects.
One technological advance of particular importance for imaging enhancement, and capitalized upon by the methods and apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 6,292,219 relates to the use of high-capacity random access storage device, such as an optical disc. Use of a random access storage device, as contrasted with accessing a continuous video stream stored on a cassette tape, provides the ability to insert pre-stored image sequences and effects at suitable points in the captured image sequence in order to display a pleasing motion picture presentation without abrupt scene changes. In place of an optical disc, Flash EPROM memory can be used instead. An example of an image capture apparatus incorporating a high-capacity Flash EPROM is the SD Multi A/V Recorder, a camcorder from Panasonic, with U.S. headquarters in Secaucus, N.J.
While the solutions disclosed in both the U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,477,264 and 6,292,219 provide, for example, the ability to improve the transitions between scenes, there remains significant room for improvement in making the captured scenes themselves interesting. For example, while these methods allow the use of pre-programmed transitions, borders, and special effects, the consumer must make appropriate decisions in order to use these enhancements effectively. Further, solutions offered in these patents are not intended to provide the benefits afforded by professional editing techniques, such as scripting and composition used by cinematographers, who seldom shoot a motion picture sequence in the studio according to the timeline sequence of a motion picture. In motion picture studios, as is well known, scenes are shot according to a schedule that is best suited for production and are later assembled at an editing facility, according to a scripted storyboard. It can be appreciated that there would be advantages to providing some measure of storyboard capability to a consumer for event-based imaging with an edited appearance. The consumer would benefit from guidance in shooting appropriate scene content and would benefit from an ability to customize an image sequence, suited to the subject, audience, and event.
Certainly, a substantial amount of motion video capture by consumers is event-based. Birthdays, holidays, family gatherings, parties, graduations, wedding anniversaries, and the like are among the salient types of events that consumers wish to capture, retain, and display in a pleasing format. While the capabilities offered in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,477,246 and 6,292,219 provide useful utilities and effects that can make electronic images from such events more pleasing, there remains a need for ways to help the consumer to capture images and image sequences that will display in a pleasing manner.
Furthermore, there is an interest in using motion video capture devices to portray family and friends in a compelling or humorous way as part of a video program. For example, incorporating motion images of family or friends within a music video or parody show would provide an amusing program.
Thus, there is a need to provide an electronic imaging system which includes instructions to enable a digital video system to obtain appropriate video sequences, and to automatically assemble the video sequences into a video program.